Page 30 - Issue 64

Vol.1 Issue 64 ÉLITE

poor and deaf ears

Abdelrahman Sakr- Second Level-Economics

Walking down the street during Eid Al- health goods and services prices, which rose
Adha, one would expect to see happy faces, by around 50% between 2021 and 2024.
a lot of veal and crowded cloths shops. But instead of having a war against
However, this was not quite the case this poverty, the government is waging a war
Eid. One could easily notice that there is against the poor. Turning a blind eye to the
much less veal than last year, a lot more struggle of the citizens, the government
beggars, less crowded shops, and much decided to reduce bread subsidy by 300%,
gloomier faces. Sarcastically, people noticed raising the charged price from 5 piasters to
there were almost no videos of veal trying
to escape, which we are used to watching

every Eid.
Double digits inflation-rate, sparked by
currency depreciation, has eaten into
people’s purchasing power, reaching an all-
time peak of 38% in September 2023. This
wave came after a decline in average family
income from wages between 2018 and
2020, according to CAPMAS Egypt.
And what hit consumers the most was the
increase in food prices, which rose by 22%,
65.9%, and 40.5% on an annual basis in
2022, 2023, and 2024 respectively, meaning
that food prices nearly tripled between 2021
and 2024.Less dramatic was the increase in

July 2024, p.30